ANHRI has asked government officials to investigate the incident but say they have not received a response. Egypt has a long history of failing to provide public, independent investigations of security officers accused of torture.

The incident comes just days after Amnesty International called upon the Egyptian government to implement UN recommendations that would end torture and other abuses done in the name of security.

The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights’ findings, made public on March 9, criticized abuses made in the name of national security in Egypt. The report criticized the wide discretion allowed to the SSI and commented that “SSI officers in practice enjoy carte blanche in deciding on whom to arrest”.

The Egyptian government claims emergency powers are used only against terrorists, but novelist Musaad Abu Fagr has been in administrative detention since February 2008, despite obtaining several court orders for his release.

Currently, it remains unclear how many people are held without charge or trial in administrative detention under the Emergency Law by order of the Minister of Interior, as the authorities refuse to disclose this information, but they may number several thousand. Some have been held continuously for years under a succession of detention orders despite obtaining court orders for their release.

The Egyptian government immediately demurred, stating that Emergency Law, which has been in effect for nearly three decades, is used primarily to combat terrorism and drug trafficking although, in fact, it is also used to detain bloggers and other peaceful critics, such as Dr. Taha Abdel Tawab.

The Egyptian claim is nonsense. Emergency powers have long been used to prosecute political opponents, journalists, secularists, intellectuals, Islamists, women, religious minorities, gays and just about any group outside of the control of the regime.

Change is coming to Egypt. The actions the government takes now will help guide what direction that change takes. The best thing for the Mubarak regime to do is to read the UN Special Rapporteur’s report and end arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention with out trial, torture and ill-treatment by security officials and unfair trials before emergency and military courts.

Update: Encouraging news should be announced as well. Amnesty International welcomes the release March 9 of blogger Ahmed Mostafa, although the release was conditional on an apology and removal of his accusation of nepotism against a military official. He was facing a military trial.